This Friday, it’s been announced that the season 2019/20, which can be claimed as the most thrilling and unpredictable is terminated. Let’s point out the main results of this cut season.
Khimki are the most efficient and spectacular
This season has been one of the most brilliant for the whole Khimki’s history in the league. They were close to get the victory in the regular season – they only had to win the derby against CSKA. Khimki made the longest wining streak of the season with 11 victories in a row. And there is no reason to believe that they wouldn’t be able to break their own record as they had 7 consecutive wins before the termination of the season.
The team of Rimas Kurtinaitis had only one defeat – even though the competition in the VTB League has only increased. For example, before this season, CSKA had the worst stat of 4 losses in a regular season stage, but now they got their fourth defeat in early January. Zenit – an Euroleague’s participant – risked ending the season with a negative record of victories and defeats. Between the 5th and 11th places, there was a distance of only 1 victory. And only Khimki throughout the season looked like a mainstay of stability.
They also became the best offensive team of the season with an average of 95.2 points per game. This is the second best franchise result of Khimki in the League and the repeat of the second result for 11 seasons of the tournament. The team of Rimas Kurtinaitis took away the status of the best offenisve team of the season from CSKA who had been holding the title last three seasons.
At the same time, Khimki combined efficiency with spectacularity: highlights with the participation of Alexey Shved, Devin Booker, Jeremy Evans and others often led the Top 10 after the round.
CSKA have best defense
Khimki became the best offensive team but CSKA still retaining the chances of first place in the table, answered with the defense: 76.3 points allowed – the best result among all the teams. At the same time they were the only League’s team that allowed their rivals to score less than 80 points per game. Loko let exactly 80, Zenit 80.7, Khimki 82.8. It is amazing that UNICS, the best defensive team of the 2018/19 season, let to score 10 points more than a year ago (84.8 vs 74.8)!
Only in 4 games, CSKA allowed 90 or more points. At the same time, in 4 games they scored 70 or less. It is the team of Dimitris Itoudis who owns the season record: in a game with Kalev, they allowed only 50 points (91:50).
PARMA is the most visited team again. But this does not surprise anyone
For the first time in 4 seasons, PARMA was closer than ever to their first playoffs. After a not-so-bright start, they have improved their performance and, until the season stopped, were at the 5th place in the table with 8 wins in 18 games. Fast basketball, which is preached by the coaching staff of the team, led to high-scoring game (87.1 points – the third stat in the League), and the athleticism of Mareks Mejeris and the power of Artem Zabelin added to the entertainment.
That is why there is nothing surprising in the fact that the Perm arena – Molot – has become the most visited in the League. On average, 5233 fans came to Parma games – these are the best numbers of the team for 4 seasons. There is a direct dependence on the results of the games: in comparison with the previous season, PARMA was supported with about a thousand more people.
The best home rims in Krasnodar
If PARMA is again the best in attendance, then Loko this season within the walls of their Basket-Hall defended best of all. Home rims really helped: on average, rivals scored only 74.1 points in Krasnodar.
Other stats also show how Loko play at home: they allowed 11.8 points more (85.9) on the road — no other League’s team has such a difference.
It is interesting that at home Loko tried to slow down the game, while playing away often played faster, as evidenced by both the number of field goal attempts (62.2 versus 66.3), and scoring (83.1 points versus 89.2).
Zenit are the best on the road
Surprisingly, it is a fact: in 8 home games Zenit won only 1, while they won 7 away games out of 10. Moreover, they upset many home teams on the road: CSKA, UNICS, Enisey.
Zenit was a step away from to make their fans happy many times. For example, they were winning after 30 minutes in games against Loko, Nizhny and Kalev, but constantly lost in the final quarters. Partly with this, changes were also connected on the coaching bridge: Xavi Pascual came in place of Joan Plaza, who immediately declared that “the team will have its own recognizable style”. Guard Andrew Albicy also spoke on the changes: “Nobody wants to lose, so we need to change our mentality. The coach is trying to help us with this.”
Well, the beginning with Pascual turned out to be good: on the road, Zenit did not leave a chance for Enisey (84:67). Let’s see how the team will change next season – if the coach and the club management agree to extend the contract.
Speaking about successful games on the road Zielona Gora should be mentioned.
They, along with Zenit, demonstrated a better game away, than on their court. They took only 3 games at home, but away they won 5. In away games Zielona Gora played better in defense, allowing 10 points less (83.6 against 93.9 at home).
UNICS are not about only defense
It is a fact. If earlier they were famous for the game in defense, and last season they became the best in this component, then in the current season they allowed 10 points more at once!
This is probably the reason for the unsuccessful start of the team of Dimitrios Priftis: after 5 games, they had a negative balance of wins and losses, on average letting opponents score more than 86 points per game. This is not to say that with the development of the season, UNICS significantly added to the game in defense, but thanks to the balance between a quality offense and defense, Kazan got to 4th place in the table, where they most likely would have completed the season.
In the summer UNICS’s roster will probably be updated – Dimitrios Priftis will try to find defense specialists in order to return his team to a recognizable style.
Nizhny Novgorod with a wide rotation
Last season, a series of serious injuries overtook Nizhny Novgorod, thus the managers and coaching staff had to actively seek out newcomers on the free agent market. In total, in the championship of 2018/19 18 players went to the court in the jersey of Nizhny Novgorod.
Fortunately, they had less injuries this season. That did not stop Zoran Lukic from taking advantage of the wide rotation again – 18 players appeared on the court. Let us note that the Serbian specialist trusts Russian young basketball players. So, in November game against CSKA 18-year-old Alexander Chadov and Ilya Sorokin made their debut in the League, and in the game with Loko, at the end of February, 17-year-old Mikhail Belenitsky entered the court.
And in general, the Nizhny coaching staff did not rely only on the foreign players: none of the team spent on average more than 27 minutes on the floor.
New Astana built by the coach of the year
Unlike Nizhny, the result of Astana is more dependent on the actions of foreigners. Dusan Ristic before the break for the All Star Game was the most valuable player in the League, Malcolm Hill and Jeremiah Hill competed with Alexey Shved in scoring and assists. These 3 basketball players of Astana are in the top ten of the season in minutes spent on the floor.
But in the summer, Emil Rajkovikj – the coach of the year 2019 – and the club’s office had to assemble a team from scratch. Astana beat Loko in the second game, but then stopped with 4 defeats in a row. However, the Macedonian specialist showed that he had not lost his qualifications – his team returned to the playoff zone and, before the end of the season, fought for getting into the Top-8.
The signature of Astana was the game at home – 5 of 7 victories were obtained in Nur-Sultan. At the same time, in the native arena, Kazakhstan allowed more than on the road (89.8 versus 85.6) – and still they were winning!
Avtodor the fast
According to statistics, the fastest basketball was traditionally demonstrated by them. Avtodor made 67.4 shots from the game and 23.1 free throws, which is the best result among all the championship teams.
However, the speed did not allow the Saratovites to get into the top scoring: Avtodor – only 10th in terms of points per game (83.6). For example, Khimki has the opposite: at a fairly average League speed, the team turned out to be the best in offence efficiency.
Enisey are favourites’ threat
The change of coach and the renewal of the roster in Krasnoyarsk led to incredible success: in their debut game of the season they beat CSKA for the first time in their history (80:71). A little later, players of Drazen Anzulovic have beaten Loko (98:91) and UNICS (95:93). All these high-profile victories were obtained at the home Arena Sever, which made us talk about how dangerous the trips to Krasnoyarsk were to the tournament’s favorites.
But after the New Year, due to a series of injuries, Enisey suffered a recession: with only 1 victory in 8 games, they dropped out of the playoff zone, in which they stayed from the first days of the season. In mid-February, they completed their performance in the FIBA Cup – who knows, perhaps focus on one tournament would have helped the team improve their results and finish the season in the top eight.
Kalev is the most careful team of the season
Like Enisey, Kalev started the season loudly: defeated UNICS (85:63), then outplayed Zenit and for a while they were at the second place. But the recession overtook them already in October: a series of 3 consecutive defeats pushed them back, and only activity on the transfer market – the rejection of several foreign players and the signing of new foreign basketball players – allowed them to return to the playoff zone.
According to the results of the season ended ahead of schedule, Kalev finished fifth – this is the best result in the 11-year history of the club in the League. Not only this is impressive, but also the accuracy of Estonians on the floor: Kalev made on average less than 11 turnovers per game (10.95) – this is the best stat in the entire championship.
A year of bad luck for Tsmoki-Minsk
Minsk can be called the unluckiest team of the season. At the start of the championship, the team got 7 defeats in a row, but in 6 of them lost -8 or less. In total of 15 losses in 10 the Dragons were less than 10 points behind, including the New Year shoot-out from CSKA (91:94).
Perhaps this tendency should be attributed to a lack of experience: in the summer Tsmoki significantly got younger, and Rostislav Vergun headed the team only in the spring – before that, the 38-year-old specialist was part of the Dragon coaching staff and led the Tsmoki reserve team in the Belarusian championship.
Alexey Norman
